Journaling

It's been a while since I've posted.  I've spent the first part of January cleaning up, clearing out, donating....all the housekeeping details that need to be done sometimes.  I enjoy doing these because I feel so virtuous afterwards!  However, the only reading I've done is light by-the-bed-read-before-going-to-sleep books.  A good break for me.

This Wednesday evening I start teaching a five week course called Literature in Life for the Adult Studies program at Southern Nazarene University. I've taught this course numerous times, and really enjoy it each time.  I find new insights and hear new ideas with each reading and each class.  This time I will have seventeen students.  Last summer I had six.  I never know how many I'll have, but it's always rewarding and fun.

One weekly assignment they have is to journal about each reading....there are five to seven individual readings each week, a combination of poetry, drama and short fiction.  I ask them to write a two paragraph immediate, off-the-top-of-the head, straight-from-the-heart unedited response in a journal.  Then, after doing so, and digesting the reading, they are to write a formal two page response paper, synthesizing and choosing from what they have already written in raw form.

I have not journaled with the classes before.  This time I am going to do so.  So, for the next five weeks, I will be posting my journals in this place as I read through the course again.  I re-read each reading every time....even though I think I remember from the previous class, I always find new aspects and new insights with each fresh re-reading.  So.....I'll begin that this Wednesday.  If you're interested, read along with me.

The first week's reading list is:
Poetry:
My Papa's Waltz  by Theodore Roethke
Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
Oranges by Gary Soto
My Life by Billy Collins
I'm Nobody, Who Are You? by Emily Dickinson
Drama:
A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen
Bible:
The Book of Esther in the Old Testament

These readings cover a historical span from about 800 B.C. to today, a good variety.